This week’s top 5 long reads

This week’s issue features a series of dispatches from Gaza, a true crime story about a family of turtle hunters, an essay about the literal chaos of death, a portrait of America’s last lighthouse keeper, and articles you won’t want to miss. Profile of a legendary basketball coach with a complicated legacy.

Atef Abu Saif | Washington Post | October 30, 2023 | 5,279 words

This week marks one month since Israel launched an unconscionable campaign of violence against the Palestinian people in response to attacks by Hamas. As of this writing, Israel has massacred more than 10,000 men, women, and children. Much has been written about the ongoing genocide (the use of the word should not be controversial), but this revealing diary of life under siege is one of the most shocking. It is one of the things. Its content, a raw draft of history, began as a voice memo sent by Atef Abu Saif, a novelist and Minister of Culture of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, to a friend abroad. He was enjoying a morning swim in Gaza when the bombing began, but he described the horrors of the present through the important lens of his past. “I remember very well when I was a child, during the first intifada, when I was shot, and my girlfriend’s mother telling me that I was dead for several minutes before I actually came back to life,” he said. says. “Maybe we can do the same thing this time.” Like many of the memories in the diary, this one is about Israel’s apartheid system, built on a massive land grab 75 years ago. It is a vivid reminder of the oppression of the Palestinian people.and that It is the root cause, the violence that breeds more violence in a destructive cycle. “Just as life is a pause between two deaths,” says Atef Abu Saif. “Palestine, both as a place and as an idea, is like a pause in the midst of many wars.” —SD

Sonia Smith | Texas Monthly | November 7, 2023 | 5,973 words

I was hooked from the first line of Sonia Smith’s true-crime story about the elusive alligator snapper, a large turtle found in the southeastern United States, and the Louisiana family who poached them for decades. . This snapper was declared endangered in Texas in the 1970s, and the protected population has increased. But that didn’t stop the Dietzes from capturing, smuggling, and selling animals across the border. The turtles in the car were so heavy that the engine could be blown out and the brakes would be forced too hard. Smith’s work unfolds like an absorbing movie. Dietz’s relatives, whose lives are deeply rooted in the bayou, are fascinating characters, as are the wildlife wardens who grow determined to capture wild animals from the Marines. But my favorites are his two giant turtles, Brutus and Caesar, who are arguably the most memorable characters of all time. —CLR

James McNaughton | Guernica | November 6, 2023 | 5,369 words

James McNaughton’s younger brother Connor died of an overdose at the age of 27, relapsing after two years of sobriety when he ran a successful roofing business. McNaughton concludes the essay with a scene of him and his family cleaning out Connor’s apartment, literally cleaning out what his brother left behind. Death and grief are messy things, and Connor’s death was no exception. But in the face of the sheer power of death, it’s the delicacy of McNaughton’s writing that breaks you down. We signed a contract at the counter saying we would return it cleanly. ” This last sentence, like the entire work, is dirty in nuance. McNaughton deftly juxtaposes those who are there to prey on vulnerable people like Connor and help those struggling to maintain sobriety. He exposes the cockroaches running around using Connor to further their own agendas, cockroaches looking to make a quick buck from distress sales and tragic bereaved families. Whether you have lost a loved one or not, this is not an easy read. But the only way to become clean is to brave the dark and dirty from time to time, with words as the only ray of light that illuminates the dirty work of grief. —K.S.

Dorothy Wickenden | The New Yorker | October 30, 2923 | 4,500 words

Sally Snowman is the 70th lighthouse keeper in Boston Lighthouse history. She is also the first woman. And finally. Once the Snowman retires, the station will be “empty” and, in her words, “without women,” and the Boston Lighthouse will follow the same path as many lighthouses before it. (There are currently about 850 lighthouses in the United States, but only half are operational, and these use automatic eclectic lamps.) In this lovely ode to a dying profession, Dorothy Wickenden looks back at the history of the Boston Lighthouse. Tragic deaths, minimum wages, unbearable. Loneliness and madness. It’s a vehicle. There’s also a book about how lighthouse lenses work, which I recommend for anyone interested in that sort of thing, but for me, it was Wickenden’s honest portrayal of the life of a lighthouse keeper, with “the roar of the foghorn and the constant… It was just waves crashing against me. It’s a piece of history worth remembering. —C.W.

Kevin Koenig | GQ Magazine | November 7, 2023 | 6,248 words

I spent last weekend in the college town where I grew up. This college town is also where legendary basketball coach Bob Knight cemented his mixed legacy. (Yes, I went to the game where he threw the chair.) With three national championships and more wins than any college coach at the time, he was like a god. It’s approaching the scene. He was a hot-tempered and angry God, but He was God in all things. same. Tributes poured in after Mr Knight passed away last week. For some, they praised the man’s accomplishments and acknowledged his shortcomings. But no one came close to capturing him like Kevin Koenig’s 2015 profile did. Angler’s Journal did. Three days of fishing with Knight in the Bahamas. Over the course of three days, I witnessed his cheerfulness in the locker room turn into a storm. Three days of conversations and battles, drama and détente.It’s a portrait that feels like completion, and a portrait I never thought I’d read. I missed it at first. Thankfully, GQ reprinted the book this week with a preface that unpacks the fallout from all of Koenig’s approaches. If you love sports, this is an event you don’t want to miss. Even if you don’t, it’s a must-read. These days, it’s rare to see a profile and shake your sense of place, but Koenig bucks that trend. You’ll feel the water splashing on your face and the sun on your arms. And the many moments when Koenig’s questions meet Knight’s erratic demeanor, you’ll feel the burn of shame on his neck. —PR

audience award

This week’s most read editor’s picks: